Chronic Stress

Chronic stress can wreak havoc on your health: damage to artery walls and immune system, head- and stomach aches, stress hormones racing through your bloodstream, and more. Not only can stress make you sick, it can affect how you care for others, how you react to routine situations, how you live your life.

Few of us observe our stressed selves and take a five-minute break to breathe deeply. Instead, we bake a cake—and then eat a third of it. Or give ourselves permission to have two drinks before dinner. Or smoke when no one is looking. Or just stay awake all night watching old movies, too tired to do anything but zone out.

In other words, we sabotage ourselves, compounding the stress by making poor choices. It may feel good at the moment, but it neither helps you do what you have to do nor solves your problem in any meaningful way.

Caring for Yourself

You need to do the one thing you are already doing: give care. But the recipient is not, this time, the patient or your family or the neighbors or the church. The recipient is you.

Others rely on you to put them first. But if you don’t take care of yourself and that heart of yours, you won’t be here to care for or love the people who rely on you.